Void Mage - New Job Idea

[Tulzscha]

This was originally going to be a Necromancer but the more I got into the lore the less it made sense, and while Void Mages don't exist in previous FF games they are mentioned (vaguely) in FFXIV by Cait Sith in the Void Ark story and they still scratch the itch for a dark and edgy caster. So I stole some stuff from Necromancers to help flesh out this job.

Google Sheets link: FFXIV Void Mage Concept

Here's the gist:

Void Mage [VDM]
Tracing the annals of history, void magic has been rooted in at least two of the Umbral Calamities, and so perhaps it is for the best that it has been long forgotten following the deaths of the final practitioners of this dark art. Were the boundless dark energies of the Void ever to be drawn upon again, surely it would only result in yet another disaster.

But as it would happen the disaster came before the Void; following the events on The First there have been attempts to reach out to Hydaelyn's other shards - most of which resulted in failure - however one such attempt unintentionally made contact with the Thirteenth shard. The following wave of darkness and Voidsent ravaged the Source for years. It also gave rise to a new breed of Void Mages, utilizing the same destructive forces that now threatened them. Many believe no good will ever come of these dark magics, and they may be right, but the Void encompasses all. No one can escape the Void, it is only a matter of how much one will succumb.

Starting Level: 30
Specialty: Damage over Time
Weapon: Dagger and Chain

• Starting at 30 gives sufficient time to go through the job's progress route, explaining how each ability is acquired since it is a "new" and very much frowned upon sort of magic. Your trainers are by no means masters.

• VDM will spend most of its time managing, refreshing, and interacting with its dots. It also features temporary summons (essentially dots with skins) which mostly do their own thing.

• The dagger and chain are separate but at times are magically combined for short-range attacks. The dagger symbolizes sacrifice while the chain symbolizes binding (Voidsent) while also being bound to your own dire fate through your use of void magic.

Quick Rundown: Apply dots which help generate a resource, use said resource to summon various (uncontrollable) Voidsent, sacrifice said Voidsent to generate a second resource, and finally use that second resource to turn into a Voidsent yourself - the duration of which can be manipulated by sacrificing more summons at the right time. Mix in some channels, a filler that makes your dots tick, a couple short range abilities to emphasize the inherent danger of the job and you have a VDM.

There isn't much information about void magic in FFXIV but the general idea is that you, as a Void Mage, draw upon the aether of the 13th shard which has been flooded with darkness and all its denizens transformed into Voidsent - a source of power that is not without its consequences.

Job Gauge

• Up to 5 Black Auracite crystals for summoning Voidsent.

• A bar representing Corruption obtained from sacrificing Voidsent with a max of 100, used to temporarily turn into a Voidsent yourself.

• A small timer for each current summoned Voidsent, to better time their sacrifice.

What follows is a list of abilities ordered by type and a short summary of the job's quest line:

Abilities

General

• Degenerate - 2.5s cast
  Damage the target.
  Additional Effect: Advances each of your damage-over-time effects on the target once.
  Primary filler

• Black Mark - 1.5s cast
  Low damage to target.
  Additional Effect: Your summons attack the target.
  Low potency situational filler

• Evil Mist - 9s channel
  10y radius around caster
  Damage nearby enemies every 1.5s.
  Primary aoe, have to be in close range

• Paroxysm - 1.5s cast
  30y radius around caster
  Damage every enemy in range that's affected by Torment or Agony. Can be used while channeling Evil Mist as an instant cast.
  Spread cleave, long range aoe option, and something to do while channeling

• Deep Freeze - 6s channel | 60s cd
  Damage enemies in a cone, 10y range.
  Additional Effect: Apply Chilled to the Bone for 30s. Maximum Stacks: 3. Activates the Fracture ability.
  The debuff lasts 30s (to interact with Fracture), the status that comes with it lasts 6s.

• Fracture - 1s OGCD cast
  Consume 1 stack of Chilled to the Bone to deal damage.
  Additional Effect: 2s Stun
  Additional Effect: Advance Meltdown twice (6s).
  Meant for burst with Meltdown and some utility

• Drain Touch - Instant | 15s cd
  Drain HP from the target. Increased damage when far from the target, increased healing when close to it.

Traits

• Chilled to the Bone - Apply a status effect based on the number of stacks for 6s:
  1 Stack: Heavy
  2 Stacks: Bind
  3 Stacks: Stun

• Degenerate only deals damage at first and gains the ability to force dot ticks later (after the dots gain their additional effects).

Damage over Time

• Torment - 1.5s cast
  30s duration dot on target.

• Agony - 1s OGCD cast
  24s duration dot on target.

• Meltdown - Instant | 30s cd
  21s duration dot on target.

Traits

• Torment has a chance to grant you a charge of Dark Flare.

• Agony has a chance to upgrade your next summon.

Summon Spells

Auracite Generators

• Dark Flare - 1.5s cast | 10s cd, up to 3 charges
  Additional Effect: +1 Black Auracite

• Osmose - 2.5s channel | 120s cd
  Additional Effect: +1 Black Auracite every 0.5s (5 total).

Traits

• Black Auracite is initially capped at 3. The cap increases to 4 and 5 at later levels.

• Dark Flare starts out with 1 charge, the 2nd and 3rd come at later levels.

• The duration and max Auracite generated by Osmose changes based on your Auracite cap.

Basic Summons

• Oath 1 - 2.5s cast | -2 Auracite
  Summon a Deepeye to attack the target for 21s.

• Oath 2 - 2.5s cast | -2 Auracite
  Summon a Cubus to attack the target and nearby enemies for 21s.

• Oath 3 - 2.5s cast | -2 Auracite
  Summon a Mindflayer to attack the target, applying a stacking dot for 21s. Each stack of the dot lasts 6s. Overwrites the Piscodemon's dot.

Upgraded Summons

• Oath 4 - 2.5s cast | -3 Auracite
  Summon an Ahriman to attack the target for 21s.

• Oath 5 - 2.5s cast | -3 Auracite
  Summon a Hecteyes attack the target and nearby enemies for 21s.

• Oath 6 - 2.5s cast | -3 Auracite
  Summon a Piscodemon to apply a stacking dot to the target for 21s. Each stack of the dot lasts 6s. Overwrites the Mindflayer's dot.

Corruption

Corruption Generators

• Hecatomb - Instant OGCD
  Sacrifice your oldest summon to gain +10 Corruption per Auracite spent on it with an additional effect depending on the sacrificed summon:
  1 or 4: High damage to target
  2 or 5: High damage to target and nearby enemies
  3 or 6: Extra +10 Corruption

• Oblation - Instant OGCD
  Sacrifice your oldest summon to gain a shield and +10 Corruption per Auracite spent on it.

Corruption Spenders

• One with the Void - Instant OGCD | 120s cd
  Take on a Corrupted form, consuming -10 Corruption every 1s, granting the Harbinger/Doomsday ability and altering the following abilities:
  Torment: 2s cast, deals 5 ticks instantly (no dot applied)
  Agony: 2s ogcd cast, deals 4 ticks instantly (no dot applied)
  Dark Flare: Becomes instant
  All Oath spells: Become instant and ogcd

• Harbinger - Instant OGCD | 90s cd
  Begin the 15s countdown to Doomsday. Becomes Doomsday.

• Doomsday - Instant OGCD
  Deal damage to all enemies in range based on the amount of Corruption lost during Harbinger, with less damage the farther enemies are from the caster.

• Curasa - Instant | -10 Corruption
  Potent self heal.

• Transfigure - Instant OGCD | -15 Corruption
  Upgrade your next summon.

Utility

• Dark Haze - Instant OGCD | 90s cd
  Blind the target for 10s, reducing their chance to hit with physical attacks.

• Veil - Instant OGCD | 90s cd
  Renders you impervious to telegraphed attacks for 5s. Can use while channeling.

• Chaos Drive - Instant | 30s cd
  Rush to a target that's affected by Torment or Agony and deal damage for each. Unable to cast if bound.

• Phylactery - 2.5s cast | 600s cd
  Resurrect self upon death at 50% HP and MP.
  Not in a weakened state.

Quest Line

Just a quick preview to get a feel for what the job's about:

• New Expansion - As the expansion starts a rift is forced open to the 13th Shard, unleashing a wave of Darkness and Voidsent upon the Source. Much anguish, such terror.
  
  Early on in the MSQ you learn that due to the rift a once-extinct form of magic has returned: Void Magic. Which of course can be nothing but trouble, so you pick up a quest where you learn of increased Void Mage activity threatening the good folks of Eorzea and are sent to obliterate them. You do so, multiple times, weakening the Void Mages each time until they are a complete joke.

• Job Unlock - Once you have beaten the enemy Void Mages into total utter submission you are sent to exterminate them once and for all, but rather than fight back they instead beg for their lives, offering to teach you their dark arts.

• Lvl 30 - The few Void Mages that remain are young, bright-eyed and hopeful but woefully inexperienced. Lured to this particular brand of magic for various reasons they have yet to be corrupted; they really have the best intentions and have absolutely no idea what they're getting themselves into. They know a little about how Black Auracite works and can summon a couple weak Voidsent, and this is what they teach you.
  
  You quickly learn it's for the best that your summoned Voidsent don't stick around for long, one of your new Void Mage friends tried to keep them out for longer and ended up losing control. That bloody mess over there is all that's left of him. Her? Can't tell anymore. [Learn: Oath 1]

• Lvl 40 - It seems the Void Mages are culling themselves almost as fast as you did as another of them exploded in an attempt to unsummon a Voidsent they lost control over. As it turns out, this explosion can in fact be used against individuals other than yourself! [Learn: Hecatomb]

• Lvl 50 - It's slow learning (you did kill the most experienced Void Mages after all) but after much practice you (and your trainers) are able to handle additional Auracite and summon stronger Voidsent. Horray! [Auracite cap increased to 4. Learn: Oath 4]

• Lvl 60 - Some of your fellow Void Mages are acting strangely... it's almost like the Darkness is corrupting them. Well I mean of course it is, that's what it does. Efforts are being made to combat this corruption but so far the only method devised involves feeding that corruption into more powerful Voidsent, which in turn corrupts the user more. [Obtain: Corruption resource. Learn: Transfigure]

• Lvl 63 - In a somewhat desperate attempt to stem this tide of corruption, some Void Mages have taken a more defensive approach (likely as a result of their more powerful Voidsent turning on them). [Learn: Curasa]

• Lvl 69 - N I C E. [Learn: Nothing]

• Lvl 70 - You and your fellow mages are getting quite good at summoning Voidsent. For better or worse. [Auracite cap increased to 5.]

• Lvl 73 - You return to your few remaining mages to learn something new and - oh... your trainer just turned into a Voidsent and attacked you. Well that's no good. It seems the corruption was too strong, despite all efforts to reduce it. Is this the fate of all Void Mages?

• Lvl 76 - It appears so, because another one has turned. This one you manage to contain for study. Hopefully the one remaining Void Mage other than yourself has an idea.

• Lvl 80 - Returning to your final VDM ally it turns out they may indeed have a solution! All you have to do is -
  
  ...
  
  Ah, they turned too. At least they were considerate enough to leave notes. After dispatching them you learn what you can but you too begin to feel the corruption overtaking you. You however are no ordinary mage - blessed with Light you have the unique ability to combat the Darkness growing within. You still need an outlet for it though, which is what your friend was up to before they turned, and in order to do that you must allow it to overtake you - albeit in a more controlled manner. [Learn: One with the Void]
  
  After all that, it looks like you're the last remaining Void Mage... until another small group comes to you looking for insight. It seems there was another branch having similar troubles and they wish to learn with you. All's well that ends well.

[Videra]

There's one little snag in this lore-wise where there is no power to be drawn from the void. It's emptiness. There's nothing there but slavering creatures that want to eat you. Can't really draw upon aether that isn't there.

[Gula]

[sobs in lore]

The void could likely be restored at some point given its prominence to the current storyline. Most dot abilities were removed I believe at Shadowbringers launch so I doubt there will be much development into basing a job around it.

[Kabooa]

There's one little snag in this lore-wise where there is no power to be drawn from the void. It's emptiness. There's nothing there but slavering creatures that want to eat you. Can't really draw upon aether that isn't there.

Easiest retcon ever.

The opposite of stillness is activity. The aether just moves as such a high frequency that we can't detect it with devices or normal senses.

[Videra]

Easiest retcon ever.

The opposite of stillness is activity. The aether just moves as such a high frequency that we can't detect it with devices or normal senses.

The problem with that is that it undoes the reason for voidsent acting the way they do. Voidsent are violent creatures that feast on the aether of others or cannibalize their own because there's no aether. So. Take that as you will. You could retcon that, but it would cause a domino effect of inconsistencies.

[Mimilu]

This is a very detailed job idea.

I have to reread this a little more to process it more but here are my thoughts/questions after my first read-through:
-I have a few questions with Degenerate and the DoTs.
1). Does it apply the damage the DoT ticks would have done or does it just skip them?
2) Does Torment and Agony get their procs at the end of their DoTs or from each tick?
3). Does Degenerate effect Meltdown too?

-This job looks like it focuses on just DPSing with no raid buffs/utility like BLM and SAM, so having utility for self survival is a given but Veil and Phylactery seem too powerful together. DRK and GNB would kill for invulns that were so user-and-healer friendly. I think if Veil was just a basic barrier ability, Phylactery could stay as is with a few tweaks (like having a small effect-time window). If you want a little more survivability, you could make One with the Void also decrease damage taken by maybe 5-10%. I think it would fit it, thematically.

-Are the upgraded Oath spells traits or additional spells? If they're additional spells, just to clean up the number of buttons the job has, you could instead have Oaths I-III upgrade via an ability that cost an additional Auracite.

[Kabooa]

The problem with that is that it undoes the reason for voidsent acting the way they do. Voidsent are violent creatures that feast on the aether of others or cannibalize their own because there's no aether. So. Take that as you will. You could retcon that, but it would cause a domino effect of inconsistencies.

Because there's no aether in a form they can consume.

Ez.

[Tulzscha]

This is a very detailed job idea.

I have to reread this a little more to process it more but here are my thoughts/questions after my first read-through:
-I have a few questions with Degenerate and the DoTs.
1). Does it apply the damage the DoT ticks would have done or does it just skip them?
2) Does Torment and Agony get their procs at the end of their DoTs or from each tick?
3). Does Degenerate effect Meltdown too?

-This job looks like it focuses on just DPSing with no raid buffs/utility like BLM and SAM, so having utility for self survival is a given but Veil and Phylactery seem too powerful together. DRK and GNB would kill for invulns that were so user-and-healer friendly. I think if Veil was just a basic barrier ability, Phylactery could stay as is with a few tweaks (like having a small effect-time window). If you want a little more survivability, you could make One with the Void also decrease damage taken by maybe 5-10%. I think it would fit it, thematically.

-Are the upgraded Oath spells traits or additional spells? If they're additional spells, just to clean up the number of buttons the job has, you could instead have Oaths I-III upgrade via an ability that cost an additional Auracite.

1. Degenerate deals a little damage on its own and also makes the dots ticks which does deal their damage too (which gives more chances for their traits to trigger).

2. Each tick by a small chance. I'm not sure what the exact % should be, probably somewhere around 5-10% considering multi-dotting, Degenerate, and One with the Void. My gut says 8% with maybe an increased chance each time it fails like Aff Lock's Agony in WoW because that low of a % is kind of necessary to prevent it from going absolutely nuts but rng can be a filthy mistress at times, I'd really want to play test it to get a better feel for what it should be (but that's not gonna happen so meh).

3. Yep. Not really an overall dps gain there considering Meltdown's cd but with so much reliance on damage over time anything to allow for some additional burst when it's needed helps.

It's very selfish, yes. Veil is primarily protection while channeling because that locks you in place while melee can move freely, it's really only going to protect you from one attack every 1.5 minutes, and only certain attacks at that. A high % dmg reduction or fixed potency shield would also be fine though if invulnerability is too strong, the idea is just that the job demands you get into dangerous territory and stay there at times (it could probably use more of that but don't want to get too similar to RDM) so it's nice to have something to help with that. Phylactery is a very long cd, might be too strong regardless but it's neat and these two abilities allow the job to be extra selfish in a way BLM wishes it could be which I think is interesting. Hm if Phylactery had a small effect time window it'd probably have to be instant but that's pretty similar to DRK's Living Dead.

When this job was a Necromancer One with the Void was Lich Form and it'd make you undead and unable to receive heals from other players but it had more self healing to go with it and the Corruption resource was like a 2nd hp bar so there was more of a survival aspect tied in but it was um... very very messy. I'm think this design could be better too tbh. Damage reduction though... I could see if it also reduced the range of the spells it changes or maybe harmed itself somehow (half hp?), otherwise it seems a little too arbitrary to me, but that could be a neat addition. Would it have too much going on in one spell then? Arguably it already does but it is the pinnacle of the rotation so it should be awesome. Maybe if that part is added on via a trait it'd be fine.

The Upgraded Oaths replace the normal ones, like how Ruin 4 replaces Ruin 2 for SMN. Transfigure upgrades them for Corruption which is intended as a Corruption dump when One with the Void is on cd, or to get the extra powerful dot from Oath 6, or for extra burst situationally. So yep only 3 buttons for Oath total, not 6.

There's one little snag in this lore-wise where there is no power to be drawn from the void. It's emptiness. There's nothing there but slavering creatures that want to eat you. Can't really draw upon aether that isn't there.

I was under the impression it was Dark aether because the Void Mages from Mhach must have used something, I may be mistaken and all they ever did was use Voidsent. Is Dark aether even a thing in FFXIV? Or are there only Dark versions of the 6 elements? Because it could just do that, combining aether from itself in combination with the environment to make something new. Or hrm... would it be feasible to say they take aether from actual Voidsent? Because they were being used essentially like batteries on the Void Ark.

Most dot abilities were removed I believe at Shadowbringers launch so I doubt there will be much development into basing a job around

I mean I can see why they wouldn't, dot classes are inherently flawed in MMOs and there are technical limitations as well, but I love 'em and I made this for fun so :P

[MirronTulaxia]

I'm not sure why people are treating lore as if it would be an issue. "Something something, lost lore of Allag (because it's always Allag), they figured out how to make a pact with a Voidsent or something and now you too can use their magic". I mean, you can make up a thousand variations on the idea of "something lost to the ages now is discovered which changes our views on everything". They even did that in Shadowbringers with Astral/Umbral being Dark/Light instead of the opposite.

[Gula]

I'm not sure why people are treating lore as if it would be an issue. "Something something, lost lore of Allag (because it's always Allag), they figured out how to make a pact with a Voidsent or something and now you too can use their magic". I mean, you can make up a thousand variations on the idea of "something lost to the ages now is discovered which changes our views on everything". They even did that in Shadowbringers with Astral/Umbral being Dark/Light instead of the opposite.

This isn't WoW, story elements and gameplay actually have to make sense.